"...Are you uncomfortable or something?" he says after a few seconds of snuggling.

"Hmm? No, not at all, quite cozy, I'm just not - all here. You haven't got anybody for Path to snuggle up to, so he's away."

"Oh," he says. "Uh, okay."

"It's not a problem, or I wouldn't have borrowed you, just, Path is literally my soul, and he isn't being at all snuggled right now. The rest of me is doing fine. You've had daemons explained, right?"

"Sort of? Apparently I'd be a green kingfisher."

"Ooh. Yeah, I can see that," chuckles Amariah. "And if you had a kingfisher she - he? - would be sitting over there with Path and then I'd be one hundred percent snuggled instead of like eighty percent. That's all. If you had the kingfisher I'd insist, actually, I would really not like to be having sex with someone who had a daemon that didn't want to hang out with Path."

"I can... sort of see that?" he says. "But it's all abstract to me."

"Since you don't have one it's incidental. Like - hmm - if you were blind - or even if the lights just weren't working so we couldn't see each other, then it wouldn't mean anything that less seeing was going on. If you had one and she didn't want to sit with Path that would be the approximate equivalent of wanting me to wear a bag on my head, by comparison."

He snorts. "Got it."

"Cam doesn't have this thing with his Grace, if that was likely to come up. It doesn't make a difference to him. I don't think Shell Bell does either, but she's way less likely to hit on you than Cam is."

"Yeah, I've heard."

"And Minus may hit on you but last I knew of it he actively preferred to have Steph tucked away, and you'd know more about how Aianon and Ansharil have it worked out than I do at this point and my sweeties are probably more like them than not, same with Sue and Ivy."

"Aianon and Ansharil have it worked out interestingly," says Ripper.

"Yeah?"

"Eh. Should I gossip? How much gossip do you want? Pat rolls her eyes whenever I mention tentacles."

"I am less uptight than - Pat? That's cute - but I do not require R-rated tentacular detail."

"Well - Ansharil shapeshifts," he says. "He doesn't get in on things every time, but he likes to bring surprises when he does."

"Interesting. Petaal shapeshifts too, but nothing in her standard repertoire is tentacled."

"I guess Ansharil's more creative," he laughs. "Anyway, the tentacles are mostly Aianon's - he gets very creative with his custom plants."

"That's sort of disturbingly adorable."

"Right?" He laughs. "Aianon's great."

"I bet he and Sarion are having a much less complicated reunion than I did," says Amariah wryly.

"I bet they're having a lot of sex," says Ripper. "You all right?"

"I'm okay. Helen's actually really neat, which helps a lot, I'd be at my wit's end if it turned out I couldn't stand her. It's just tricky."

"I'd be in way over my head if I were you." He snuggles her some more.